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Canada's health ministers are to discuss a fundamental change in the way in which general practitioners are paid. Federal, provincial, and territorial ministers of health will meet next week in Victoria to discuss a report that recommends scrapping the current fee for service payment of doctors in favour of capitation, or population based funding.

The ministers' Advisory Committee on Health Services model proposes that family doctors be clustered into “primary care organisations” established by regional or district health authorities.

Each primary care organisation would maintain a roster of patients and would negotiate adequate funding with its local health authority on the basis of the number …